Archeologists rebuilding the stairway to heaven

Visitors to Copan can explore a large complex of Mayan step-pyramids, plazas and palaces. The modern town sits beside the ruins and offers a good selection of hotels and restaurants. Photos: Pat Brennan/ for Postmedia news

Scarlet macaws are plentiful in the jungles around Copan.

The Maya carved glyphs into stelae to record their history.

Don’t be too sure we dodged a bullet in December 2012 when the world didn’t come to an abrupt end, as predicted by an ancient Mayan calendar.

It could be that the predicted doomsday date of Dec. 21, 2012, is actually Dec. 21, 2021. It all depends on how accurately archeologists are re-assembling the Mayan calendar on which the prophecy is based.

The calendar is a huge story book assembled as a wide staircase leading to the top of a Mayan temple in Honduras. Each large stone in the 72-step hieroglyphic staircase is carved with symbols that tell the story of the Mayan people. But the jungle, always creeping forward over the eons, with its relentless roots and clawing tree limbs, has scattered those stones hither and yon. Archeologists, anthropologists and epigraphists have been putting the stones back in place like a massive jigsaw puzzle so they can read the Mayan history book. But, they admit, they may have the stones in the wrong order. You can read the hieroglyphic staircase by visiting Copan, an ancient Mayan city being slowly reclaimed from the jungle in Honduras.

For 2,000 years, Copan was the capital city and spiritual hub for the Mayan people. But, following a disastrous defeat in battle with the rival community of Quiriguai in neighbouring Guatemala in the year 738, Copan slowly lost its cultural and spiritual dominance among the Maya. Its 20,000 population had dwindled to a few hundred souls in scattered villages within 20 years.

Eventually the tireless jungle swallowed the great capital and it was lost for centuries under carpet of foliage.

During its 2,000-year-reign as the Mayans’ Big Apple, residents erected hundreds of temples, pyramids, altars and even stadiums, and on each structure the builders chiselled glyphs to tell the story of Copan. Although the jungle eventually grew over these monuments, archeologists have been steadily hacking it out of the overgrowth.

Today, about 10 per cent of the city has been uncovered and it is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. The Maya worshipped the beautiful scarlet macaws found in the jungle and their images were carved into practically every structure. Magnificent examples of the birds can be found throughout the ruins, but they like to gather by the entrance gate where somebody cleverly installed feeding trays. It offers wonderful photo opportunities.

Mayan guides who conduct English-language tours of Copan have a macaw feather stuck on the top of their walking sticks. You’re wise to use a walking stick, too, when touring the ruins. Your knees will thank you for it. Your Mayan guide will introduce you to some of the agricultural and scientific achievements of the early Mayan culture.

They created one of the world’s first written languages, grew crops on unco-operative lands and had a complex understanding of astronomy. They knew how to predict solar eclipses and used astrological cycles to aid in planting and harvesting. They developed two calendars that are as precise as those we use today.

The modern town of Copan sits beside the ruins and offers an interesting selection of hotels and restaurants. One of the most charming is the 100-year-old Hacienda San Lucas, a family-run resort. If you eat there in daylight, you’ll be overlooking the Mayan ruins, but it’s even more attractive at night. There’s no electricity, so everything is lit by candlelight, including the kitchen where a half-dozen women prepare delicious local dishes. And you should go by tuk-tuk, a bright-coloured, three-wheeled motorcycle cab.

You must be forewarned, however. Honduras has the highest national murder rate in the world. Canadian and American governments caution visitors, but Canadian expatriates living in Honduras say if you are not a gang member or not involved in the illegal drug trade, you are as safe in the towns of Honduras as you would be in most large North American cities.

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